From the recording LP13 EMPOWERMENT
“Always Too Late” is a country-ballad confession of missed chances and quiet regret.
The narrator keeps arriving just after love and opportunity have already passed—missing buses and sunsets, leaving letters unsent, letting words of affection go unspoken until it’s too late to matter. Trains, fading lights and paper lanterns become symbols of time slipping away and of a heart that can’t quite keep pace with life’s moments. Yet beneath the sorrow there is a kind of acceptance: the singer knows the pattern is partly his own doing, but tells the story with the reflective warmth of someone who has learned to live with imperfection. The song captures both the ache of lost timing and the bittersweet dignity of acknowledging it.
Lyrics
Always Too Late
[Verse 1]
Missed that bus down in Nashville,
Watched the red lights fade from view.
I was reachin’ for tomorrow
When today just slipped on through.
All my plans are paper lanterns,
Blowin’ out before they shine—
Guess the world keeps turnin’
While I’m stuck one step behind.
[Chorus]
I’m always too late,
When the moment’s callin’ my name.
Love’s already gone,
And I’ve only myself to blame.
Like a slow freight train on a broken rail,
I roll in after the gate—
Yeah, the story of my heart
Is always too late.
[Verse 2]
Letters in a drawer I never mailed,
Promises I swore but failed.
I chased a dream across the plains,
But the sunset outran the trail.
Every “I love you” I meant to say
Is a song the night wind plays—
And the echoes fade to silence
Before the dawn can raise.
[Chorus]
I’m always too late,
When the moment’s callin’ my name.
Love’s already gone,
And I’ve only myself to blame.
Like a slow freight train on a broken rail,
I roll in after the gate—
Yeah, the story of my heart
Is always too late.
[Bridge]
Maybe time’s a restless river,
No one ever learns to tame.
But I keep hopin’ for a shiver
Of mercy in the rain.
[instrumental: banjo and violin solo]
[Final Chorus]
I’m always too late,
When the moment’s callin’ my name.
Love’s already gone,
And I’ve only myself to blame.
Like a slow freight train on a broken rail,
I roll in after the gate—
Yeah, the story of my heart
Is always too late.
[Outro: fade out]
Yeah, the story of my heart
Is always… too late.